Well, this was just a little thing that I wrote for someone on tumblr... But I thought I'd post it here. :)
It might not be very good, because I wrote it at, like, 3 in the morning the other night. ahah... ah well.
Freckles
There was one thing he had come to notice the closer he got to the reserved Englishwoman: she had freckles - many freckles. They not only ghosted along her nose or dotted her arms. No, they were on her shoulders, and even along the sternum, subtly spreading across her breasts.
It was because of too much sun when she was younger, she had said. She hadn't grown up lavishly like some people. She'd had to fend for herself. There were times when she went without clothes because it was easier. He could understand the comfort of nakedness, though he couldn't understand the concept of poverty.
He ran his hand up her arm and touched her shoulder. It was soft, smooth almost like that of a child and the freckles were there in abundance.
"Ugh. They just won't go away," she murmured, noticing his apparent fixation.
"What do you mean?"
"The freckles. You see this?" She pointed to her cheeks right below the eyes and her nose. "I've tried so many remedies: lemon juice, different lotions, even some strange concoction that some old gypsy woman made." She sighed. "But I've never had any luck with them. They wouldn't disappear no matter how hard I tried."
Francis smiled, apparently amused.
"Why ever would you want to get rid of them?"
She paused. Her gaze drifted away beyond the sheets they were tangled in.
"Marianne used to make fun of them…" She finally said quietly. "She said I didn't have beautiful skin."
Francis momentarily shut his eyes in exasperation. Sometimes his twin could take her teasing too far.
"I know it shouldn't still bother me, after all these years…" she feebly laughed. "But-"
She was stopped when Francis leaned over her and stared into her eyes. His golden waves brushed against her cheeks.
"Alice," he said, quietly but firmly. "Marianne just likes to tease. You know that. You have beautiful skin."
She frowned, pouted almost.
"Don't you believe me?"
She gave him a quizzical look. "So you don't think these freckles are… ugly? You don't think they make me look plain?"
He smiled before he leaned down to kiss her. "You…" He brushed his lips against her nose and cheeks.
"…Are…"
Then he lightly kissed below her collarbone, traveling up to one of those spotted shoulders of hers.
"…Beautiful. Freckles and all."
Then Alice smiled, and he could tell his compliments left her wishing she hadn't said anything to begin with. Francis leaned in to kiss her again, determined to make her believe his words, and he had all night to accomplish that.
